Transcription

1 -1- Kant s I think versus Descartes I am a thing that thinks With one exception, all references to Descartes in Kant s Critique of Pure Reason occur in the Transcendental Dialectic. After having laid out in the transcendental Aesthetic and Analytic what he takes to be the legitimate use of our understanding and reason, namely that use that remains within the boundaries of possible sensory experience, in the Transcendental Dialectic Kant goes on to denounce the illusions of a metaphysical thinking that ignores those limits. His (mostly unnamed) targets are the metaphysicians of Leibnizian inspiration (primarily Wolff and Baumgarten), whose metaphysics text-books Kant used as material for his own lectures. But Kant specifically addresses Descartes own views and arguments on two occasions. First, in his criticism of rationalist theories of the mind as a thinking substance distinct from the body, in the first chapter of the Transcendental Dialectic, the Paralogisms of Pure Reason (A341- A405, B399-B432). Second, in his criticism of the so-called ontological proof of the existence of God, which Kant also calls the Cartesian proof, in the third chapter of the Transcendental Dialectic, the Transcendental Ideal (A592/B620-A603/B631). Moreover, Kant s Refutation of Idealism, an addition to the Transcendental Analytic in the second edition of the Critique, is explicitly addressed at what Kant calls Descartes problematic idealism, namely Descartes statement that the existence of the mind is more immediately known and thus more certain than that of bodies, including our own (B274-79). And finally, we can read an implicit reference to Descartes in the famous statement that opens 16 of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories, in the second edition of the Critique:

2 -2- The I think must be able to accompany all my representations: for otherwise something would be represented in me that could not be thought at all, which is as much as to say that the representation would either be impossible or else at least would be nothing to me. (B131-32) In this paper, I shall not consider Kant s criticism of the Cartesian proof of the existence of God. Not that it is any less important to Kant s criticism of Cartesian metaphysics than is his appropriation of Descartes I think and I am, I exist. Quite the contrary: not only is it equally important, but there are interesting comparisons to be made between the two issues. Kant shares Descartes conviction of the foundational role of the proposition I think on the one hand, of the concept of God on the other hand, in framing all cognitive use of reason. And in both cases, Kant s discussion of the Cartesian view is focused primarily on the statements of existence Descartes thinks he can derive from the proposition I think and from the concept of God, respectively. But Kant s attitude toward those derivations is very different. Kant notoriously criticizes the Cartesian proof of the existence of God, on the ground that existence is not a predicate of a thing or real predicate, so that God exists cannot be analytically derived from God is the most perfect being (see A592/B620-A603/B631). In contrast, Kant endorses Descartes claim that the statement I exist is contained in the statement I think (a point that I will examine below). But he criticizes Descartes for ignoring the fact that my consciousness of the existence of bodies outside me is just as immediate as my consciousness of the existence of my own mental states, at least insofar as I am conscious of this existence as determined in time.

3 -3- I shall be considering the latter set of issues: the meaning of the proposition I think and the statements of existence Descartes and Kant respectively take to be necessarily connected with it. I shall do this in three steps: 1) I shall compare the contexts in which Descartes and Kant respectively discuss the proposition I think : the first step out of radical doubt in the Second Meditation (Descartes), 1 the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories (Kant). 2 One striking fact here is that if Kant s concern is with the I think (namely: the proposition I think ), Descartes never mentions I think alone, but always I think, therefore I am or I am, I exist as long as I think. 3 I shall try to elucidate the import of that initial difference for Descartes and Kant s respective understanding of I think, cogito. 2) Based on this first comparison, I shall endeavor to clarify the nature of Kant s criticism of Descartes in the Paralogisms of Pure Reason. To understand Kant s opposition to Descartes, it is first important to understand the points of proximity between them. As we shall see, Kant endorses the Cartesian claim that one cannot think I think without thinking I exist. He also accepts the obvious point that I in I think refers to a thinking thing. What he refuses is Descartes assertion that we know this thing to be a thing whose only essential attribute is to think, namely a thinking substance, or a mind distinct from the body. 3) Kant most definitely disagrees with Descartes s statement that my existence as a mind is more immediately known than the existence of bodies outside me, including my own. This point is addressed in the fourth Paralogism in the A edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (A366-A379). Significantly, this is the only instance in all four Paralogisms where Kant directs his criticism specifically at Descartes (rather than at some generic

4 -4- version of rationalist metaphysics). Descartes is again explicitly mentioned when Kant reformulates his Refutation of Idealism in the B edition of the Transcendental Analytic in the Critique of Pure Reason (B274-79). Those two versions of Kant s criticism of Descartes problematic idealism will be the object of my investigation in the third part of the paper. There are systematic correlations between the three points I just mentioned, namely 1) Kant s and Descartes different concerns in considering the proposition I think, 2) the interpretation of the proposition I am a thinking thing they respectively endorse, and finally 3) the certainty they respectively attach to the existence of bodies outside me. I shall try to draw out these systematic correlations. On the whole, my conclusions are mixed. I think Kant gives a better account than does Descartes (indeed he gives an account that is altogether absent from Descartes) of why thinking has to be attributed to the subject I (rather than, say, it ) in the proposition I think (rather than it thinks or it is thought ). I also think that Kant s account of the difference between what he calls the mere logical subject I in I think, and any kind of thinking thing, or metaphysical substrate of thought, is the most interesting aspect of his anti-cartesian interpretation of Cogito. However, the sticking point, in Kant s confrontation with the Cartesian view, is Kant s purported refutation of idealism. I would like it to be a successful argument. But I am afraid I have to recognize, like many before me, that all I can do is throw up my arms in despair. Having thus laid out my cards, let me now begin. DESCARTES EGO COGITO, ERGO SUM, KANT S I THINK

5 -5- The context of Descartes so-called Cogito argument is well known: in the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes undertakes to accept as true only those beliefs that have survived the test of radical doubt, namely that have survived all attempts at identifying a possible ground for disbelief. In the First Meditation, Descartes thus successively discards beliefs in the existence of ordinary objects of sensory perception, from the remotest to the closest and mot familiar - including his own body -; he finds reasons to discard belief in the existence of even the simple phenomenal components of those objects of sensory perception, which one might initially have thought could not possibly be mere fictions, however deluded the representations of their composition might be. Finally he finds reasons to discard belief in even the seemingly most unassailable truths of mathematics. Reinforcing this last, most radical stage of the doubt is the supposition of a malicious demon that deceives me even in the most careful exercise of my perception and reason. This last, desperate stage of the doubt, however, is also what leads to light, at the beginning of the Second Meditation: I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no mind, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? No: if I convinced myself of something, then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing as long as I think that I am something. So after considering everything very thoroughly I must finally conclude that this proposition I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it

6 -6- is put forward by me or conceived in my mind. (AT VII, 25; AT IX-1, 19; CSMK II, 17) As is well known, Descartes famous formulation I think, therefore I am does not appear in the Meditations. It is present in this form in the Discourse on Method ( Je pense, donc je suis ), and in the Principles of Philosophy ( Ego cogito, ergo sum ). 4 In the Meditations, the emphasis is directly on the statement of existence: I am, I exist, although of course what grounds this statement of existence is the indubitable fact that I convinced myself of something, namely the indubitable fact that I think, however deluded my thoughts may be. There have been innumerable attempts at determining the exact nature of Descartes move from the proposition I think to the proposition I am, I exist, or indeed whether there is any inference at all from one to the other. Doing justice to that discussion is beyond the scope of this paper. Let me just make two remarks that I hope will be helpful in comparing Descartes I think, therefore I am to Kant s I think. The first concerns the nature of Descartes move from I think to I am, I exist. Contrary to Kant s charge (which we shall consider in a moment), 5 Descartes does not derive the truth of the proposition I exist by a syllogistic inference from the major premise Everything that thinks, exists and the minor premise I think. On the contrary, Descartes repeatedly insists that the proposition I exist is known with certainty to be true by virtue of our knowing that the particular proposition, I think is indubitably true, and not from a prior knowledge of the universal proposition, Everything that thinks, exists. The classic reference here is from the Second Replies:

7 -7- When we perceive that we are things that think, this is a first notion that is derived from no syllogism; and when someone says, I think, therefore I am, or I exist, he does not conclude his existence from his thought as if by the force of some syllogism, but as something known by itself; he sees it by a simple inspection of the mind. As it appears form the fact that, if he deduced it from the syllogism, he would first have had to know this major premise: Everything that thinks, is or exists. But on the contrary, it is taught to him from the fact that he feels in himself that it cannot be the case that he thinks, unless he exists. For it is in the nature of our mind to form general propositions from the knowledge of particular propositions. (A.T.VII, ; A.T. IX-1, ; CSMK, 100. for a similar point, see also Letter to Clerselier on the Instances of Gassendi, A.T. IX, 206). However, the fact that the proposition I exist is not derived from I think by way of a syllogistic inference does not mean that its knowledge depends on no inference at all. It is true that in the Second Meditation (contrary to the formulations of the Discourse on Method or the Principles), there does not seem to be any mention of inference from I think to I exist. Rather, Descartes directly asserts the certainty of the proposition I exist : The proposition I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind (A.T.VII, 25; A.T.IX, 19; CSMK, 17; Emphasis mine). However, later in the Meditations Descartes does speak of an inference when he recapitulates the argument of the Second Meditation: Natural light has formerly shown me that, from the fact that I doubted, I could conclude that I was. Or again: Examining these past days whether anything at all existed in the world and knowing that, from the sole fact that I examined this question, it followed very evidently

8 -8- that I myself existed 6 However, the striking fact here is that the inference is not from the statement of something s having a property (thinking) to the statement of its having another property (existing). Rather, the inference is from the statement of a fact (that I think) to the statement of an aspect of this very same fact, which is its necessary condition (that I exist). This being so, the assertion of my existence will be no more and no less indubitable than the assertion that I think. So what makes this assertion indubitable? This question leads to my second remark, which concerns the role of I in Descartes argument. There are two characteristics of the proposition I think that make it indubitably true, as Descartes clearly states, every time I pronounce it, or think it in my mind. One is the peculiar relation that obtains between the content of the proposition and the thinking of the proposition (be it even in the attitude of doubt: I doubt that I think ). The very fact of thinking the proposition I think makes the proposition true. Note, however, that we might make the same point about the proposition formulated impersonally: in being thought (by anybody at all, including me, or anyone else), the proposition there is thought is made true. Its truth-condition, that there be thought, is realized every time anyone or anything thinks: there is thought. However and this is the second aspect of the proposition to be taken into account - even under this impersonal form ( there is thought ) the proposition is not only true but also known to be true only by virtue of the fact that the thinker of the proposition it is thought is the truth maker of that proposition, by virtue of the fact that he thinks it. In other words, the reason the thinker of the proposition it is thought or there is thought knows the proposition to be true is that it is he, himself, who is the bearer of the thought mentioned in the proposition. But this identity between the thinker of the proposition

9 -9- there is thought and the bearer of the thought mentioned in the proposition is precisely what is expressed by formulating the proposition in the first person: I think. In thinking I think, I refer the predicate of thinking to the one logical subject of whom I know indubitably, just by virtue of thinking the proposition I think, that the predicate is true. 7 So to the question, why should thought be attributed in the first person rather than be expressed impersonally, I suggest that as far as Descartes s Cogito argument is concerned there is no other response to be sought than this: what I in I think expresses is just this fact that in thinking I think, the predicate think is attributed to the one subject of which it is indubitably known to be true by virtue of thinking the proposition I think. Descartes Archimedean point, lifting him out of radical doubt, thus rests on two pillars: that I exist is a necessary condition of I think ; and that I think is the one proposition that is both true and known to be true just by virtue of being thought. As we shall now see, the role of I in Kant s I think is quite different from the role of I in Descartes Cogito, ergo sum. Not that they are incompatible. In fact, I shall suggest that Kant basically accepts Descartes Cogito, ergo sum (or rather: cogito = sum cogitans) as I just analyzed it, although he rejects the syllogistic interpretation of it he wrongly attributes to Descartes. But Kant, I shall suggest, goes further in understanding the role of I in I think by considering I think quite independently of any concern with the resolution of Cartesian doubts about existence.

10 -10- The most famous statement in the Critique of Pure Reason is perhaps the following, which opens 16 of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories in the B edition: The I think must be able to accompany all my representations; for otherwise something would be represented in me that could not be thought at all, which is as much as to say that the representation would either be impossible or else at least would be nothing to me. (B131-32). The I think means: the proposition, or the thought, I think. When Kant says that the thought I think must be able to accompany all my representations, he is not claiming that it must actually accompany all of them, or even less that any time I think p I necessarily also think I think p or I think that p. Rather, I suggest, he means that a representation is not mine ( my representation in the text cited) unless I can ascribe it to myself, and moreover unless I can ascribe it to myself under a description, or as conceptualized in some determinate way. Consider for instance a case where I say: Look, that s a tower! And someone will answer: Are you sure? To which I will reply: Yeah, I think it s a tower. I think, here, does not express a turning of my attention to myself as the thinker of the thought: that s a tower. Rather, I think it s a tower summarizes some implicit process of combining and comparing the present object of my perceptual state with a whole array of previous objects of previous states, as well as taking stock of the location of the present object in space, the angle under which I perceive it, the quality of light, and so on, all factors that contribute to the identification of this particular object as a tower. When Kant says: The I think must be able to accompany all my representations, what he means is that in order to be mine (that is, to be recognized, thought as mine, what I see, hear, imagine, and so on), a representation

11 -11- must be taken up in such a process of combination and comparison, which the argument will continue - is also the process in virtue of which the object of the representation is recognizable under a concept, or thought. This is a pretty minimal way of characterizing what Kant has in mind with the statement quoted above. Much more would need to be said, and is said by Kant, about what is presupposed by the ascription of my representations to myself in the proposition I think. What I mainly want to stress here is that clearly, the emphasis on the relation of all my representations to the proposition I think, in Kant s Transcendental Deduction, has quite a different role than the one it had in Descartes Second Meditation. Kant s concern in the Transcendental Deduction is not any kind of skeptical doubt about existence, much less a doubt about the existence of the objects of our sensory experience. I think is not introduced as a solution to that kind of skepticism. Rather, it is part of Kant s response to a Humean brand of skepticism, a skepticism that is primarily directed at the objective validity of ideas of necessary connection. In other words, when Kant states that a representation is mine only if it can be accompanied by the thought I think, he does not mean to move from there to the statement that a representation that is mine (or that I recognize as mine) is accompanied by the certainty of my own existence. Rather, he means to move from there to the statement that all my representations are taken up in one and the same act of combining and comparing them, an act that is determined according to some universal concepts of the understanding, among which the concept of causal connection. Note that the thought I think we are talking about in this context is a thought that must be able to accompany all my perceptual representations. According to Kant,

12 -12- all other modes of thinking, including the most abstract (mathematical thinking, and even logic), are premised on the most original function of thinking, whose role is to combine and compare objects of perceptual experience, and to recognize them under concepts. In this context, to say that representations are mine (i.e. possibly accompanied by the thought I think ) is to say three main things. First, I commit myself, as a thinker, to making consistent statements about those representations. Any inconsistency in the ways in which I describe the objects of my representations calls for evaluation, interpretation, and perhaps correction by me. For instance, if I think the rose is in bloom, and I also think the rose is faded, either I recognize that I am not thinking in both cases about one and the same rose, or I recognize that time has elapsed and that the very same rose that two hours ago appeared to me as in bloom now appears to me as faded. These evaluations have to be made from one and the same standpoint, mine. We make these kinds of judgments all the time, and in exercising judgment in this way, each of us implicitly commits himself to consistency in his judgments and is thus capable of making relatively reasonable sense of the world around him. The role of I, here, is to express the fact that one and the same thinker, from one and the same standpoint, thinks the thoughts by which sense is made of a complex array of perceptual experiences. If the latter were attributed to different thinkers, no similar demand of consistency between the perceptual thoughts could be demanded although of course different standpoints can themselves be evaluated within one standpoint that locates them with respect to one another: again, the standpoint of I, in I think. Second, it is not just conceptual coherence we endeavor to bring into our representations. Committing ourselves to thinking and recognizing the objects of our

13 -13- perceptual experiences under mutually consistent concepts is inseparable from supposing those objects to belong in one space and one time, in which all of them ought to be correlated. This is why for Kant, conceptual unity is inseparable from unity of intuition, whose forms are space and time: all objects have to be given or imagined in one space and one time. Third, both these unifying functions (thinking in one coherent and consistent conceptual space, intuiting in one space and one time) are at work in empirical circumstances specific to a particular perceiver and thinker. But those very same functions make it possible for any particular perceiver and thinker to recognize his standpoint as one particular standpoint, to be compared and combined with that of all other perceiving and thinking beings like him. This makes the use of I in I think quite peculiar. For on the one hand, I think is a universal form of thought, which can be attributed to any thinker; on the other hand, this universal form is necessary for particular, empirically determined perceivers and thinkers to come up with thoughts about the world that are independent of their own particular standpoint on the world. There is nothing more to be known of I in the context of this argument. It matters not at all what kind of entity is the bearer of the act whose peculiar kind of unity is expressed by the thought I think. In referring his thoughts to I, the thinker (perceiver, imaginer) is doing nothing more than committing himself to the unity and consistency of his thoughts, and committing himself to obtaining a unified standpoint that could be shared by all: an objective standpoint, also called by Kant objective unity of apperception.

14 -14- It is thus apparent that the function of I in this context is quite different from what it was in Descartes Cogito argument. As we saw, there the use of I served to express the identity between the subject of which think is asserted in the proposition I think and the subject currently thinking the proposition in which the predicate think is attributed to a subject. In Kant s Transcendental Deduction, I serves to express the identity of the subject that thinks a variety of thoughts about objects of perceptual experience and commits himself to the consistency of his thoughts about those objects. It is important to note, however, that the two approaches are not incompatible: the referent of Kant s I, whoever s/he is, is obviously also the referent of Descartes I, the subject of the proposition I think identical to the thinker of the proposition. But again, the role of I in Kant s I think is different from the role of I in Descartes I think, therefore I am, i.e. the function fulfilled by attributing think to I is in each case different. An indication that the two approaches are not incompatible is that Kant agrees with Descartes that the proposition I think entails the proposition I exist. Indeed he thinks that the proposition I think just means I exist thinking. He also notes that the notion of existence at work in this thought is prior to the category of existence or actuality, which applies to objects of experience. If anything, Kant claims to improve on Descartes affirmation of the immediate certainty of ego sum, ego existo. For as I recalled earlier, if he has a reproach to make to Descartes on this particular point, it is to have thought that the truth of sum is inferred from the truth of Cogito rather than immediately contained in it. Kant s statement on this point is well-known, but still worth citing at some length:

15 -15- The I think is, as has already been said, an empirical proposition, and contains within itself the proposition I exist. But I cannot say Everything that thinks, exists ; for then the property of thinking would make all beings possessing it into necessary beings. Hence my existence also cannot be regarded as inferred from the proposition I think, as Descartes held (for otherwise the major premise, Everything that thinks, exists would have to precede it) but rather it is identical with it. It expresses an indeterminate empirical intuition, i.e., a perception (hence it proves that sensation, which consequently belongs to sensibility, grounds this existential proposition) but it precedes the experience that is to determine the object of perception through the category in regard to time; and here existence is not yet a category, which is not related to an indeterminately given object, but rather to an object of which one has a concept, and of which one wants to know whether or not it is posited outside this concept. An indeterminate perception here signifies only something real which was given, [ ] as something that in fact exists and is indicated as an existing thing in the proposition I think. (B422fn. See also B418, B428, B157fn.) As I noted already, Kant is mistaken when he attributes to Descartes the view that my existence is inferred from I think via a syllogistic inference. Descartes explicitly says the reverse more than once, and the existence that is, according to Kant, prior to the category of existence seems in fact strikingly similar to the existence that is asserted, according to Descartes, as a necessary condition of the very assertion I think. Surprisingly enough, although Kant has clearly perceived the difference between the existence asserted of I in Descartes I think and the existence asserted of God in

16 -16- Descartes ontological proof, he nevertheless treats Descartes inference in the case of the Cogito as if it followed the (illusion-driven) model of the ontological proof of the existence of God, where existence is derived from the concept of God and is thus asserted as absolutely necessary. Not only is Descartes not guilty as charged here, but I suggest that if Kant had correctly perceived the nature of Descartes inference, he might have been able to clarify some of the more puzzling aspects of his own formulations, such as: the existence asserted in I think is that of the very act of thinking, or: the concept of existence at work here is prior to the category of existence (actuality, Wirklichkeit) which applies to objects given in sensation and connected to one another in time. Whatever the case may be on this last point, let us accept, with Descartes and Kant, the statement I think, I exist. What am I? This is the second point of contention between Kant and Descartes, to which I now turn. DESCARTES SUM RES COGITANS AND KANT S I, OR HE, OR IT (THE THING) THAT THINKS. Having reached the Archimedean point of recognizing that I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind, Descartes continues: But I do not yet have a sufficient understanding of what this I is, that now necessarily exists. (A.T.VII, 25; A.T. IX, 20; CSMK, 17. Descartes presumably means: this I of which I now necessarily assert that it exists.)

17 -17- After careful investigation of the options left open in light of the radical doubt that precedes, he concludes that the only characterization he can confidently give of this I that exists, is: Sum res cogitans. I am a thinking thing. The earlier Discourse on Method was more emphatic: Next I examined attentively what I was. I saw that while I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in it, I could not for all that pretend that I did not exist; and I saw that on the contrary from the mere fact that I thought of doubting the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed; whereas if I had merely ceased thinking, even if everything else I had ever imagined had been true, I should have had no reason to believe that I existed. From this I knew that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think [emphasis mine, B.L.], and which does not require any place, or depend on any material thing, in order to exist. (AT VI, 33; CSMK I, 127). In the Meditations, Descartes gives himself more time before reaching such a strong conclusion. He recognizes that all he can say on the basis of the argument of the Second Meditation is that he is a thing that thinks. Whether thinking is an essential attribute of this thing (himself) that is now said with certainty to exist, and if so, whether it is the only essential attribute of this thing that is said to exist, such questions will find answers only after reasons have been provided to give credence to one s clear and distinct ideas, and to the judgments founded on them. Thus only in the Sixth Meditation does Descartes allow himself to assert that the referent of I in I think is only a thing that

18 -18- thinks, really distinct from a body or extended thing, albeit substantially united with a body. In her characteristically lucid analysis of the different stages of Descartes arguments in the Meditations, Margaret Wilson made the following comment concerning the statement I am a thinking thing as it first appears in the Second Meditation: Sum res cogitans ultimately includes at least five distinguishable claims (each one stronger than the one before): (1) I think (2) I am a thinking thing. (3) Thought is a property essential to me. (4) Thought is the only property essential to me. (5) I am essentially a thinking thing, and not essentially material. 8 In the second Meditation, she argues, Descartes has established (and indeed takes himself to have established) (1) and (2) and to have gestured toward (3). Only in the Sixth Meditation (having proved that God exists, that He is not deceiving, and that we do not deceive ourselves as long as we assent only to propositions formed on the basis of clear and distinct ideas) does Descartes have the resources to claim that he is justified in asserting (3), as well as (4) and (5). Now strikingly, (1) and (2), and perhaps also a cautious version of (3), are the extent to which Kant can be taken to endorse Descartes statement: sum res cogitans. He definitely parts company with Descartes on the last two. What, then, is Kant s quarrel with Descartes? How does this quarrel relate to the different contexts in which the

19 -19- proposition I think is introduced respectively by Descartes, and by Kant? This is what I now want to explore. Kant s criticism of rationalist doctrines of the soul as a thinking substance is expounded in the Paralogisms of Pure Reason. The criticism is not directed only or even primarily at Descartes. Kant s most direct interlocutors are the post-leibnizian Schulphilosophen, mainly Wolff, Baumgarten, and (on the particular issue of the immortality of the soul) Mendelssohn. The name Descartes appears only in the course of Kant s criticism of the fourth Paralogism, where what is under discussion is the respective certainty of our own existence as thinking beings, and of the existence of things outside us: extended things. Nevertheless, with the exception of Mendelssohn s, Descartes is the only name explicitly mentioned in any of the Paralogisms. This is understandable: Kant s general thesis in the Paralogisms is that rationalist metaphysicians illicitly translated into real features of a thing the mere logical features of the thought I in the proposition I think. Kant would certainly be justified in claiming that Descartes was the originator of such a move. After all, reference to Descartes Cogito is invariably present in all early modern rationalist theories of the mind. And as we shall see, each and everyone of the features Kant claims rationalist metaphysicians attribute to the mind, as a thinking substance distinct from the body, do hold of Descartes notion of the mind. Nevertheless, as Jean-Marie Beyssade convincingly shows, 9 in the Meditations Descartes arrives at his statement that I am a thing whose sole attribute is thinking by a long and careful process of analysis, which starts in the final paragraphs of the Second

20 -20- Meditation and is painstakingly developed all the way to its conclusion in the Sixth Meditation. Kant ignores these developments when he traces the Cartesian/rationalist notion of mind to a fundamental illusion of reason that can be sketched out in the form of four Paralogisms of Pure Reason. In fact, Kant makes no claim that what he lays out in these Paralogisms is an argument actually defended by Descartes or by any of the rational psychologists whose system he is criticizing. Rather, what he is claiming is that behind the explicit arguments or views defended by Descartes, Wolff, Baumgarten or Mendelssohn, lies an implicit logical structure of their thoughts that is more primitive than the step by step procedures by which they establish their conclusions, and that determines the contents of those conclusions more surely than any of the arguments they explicitly appeal to. Although the limits of this paper make it impossible to consider in any detail Kant s argument in each of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason, let me nevertheless try to sketch out their common pattern. Kant s general point in the Paralogisms is the following: given the role of the proposition I think in reflecting the act by which we bring about overall unity and consistency of our representations (as outlined in the first part of the present essay), there are ways in which we necessarily think of ourselves when we refer to ourselves by the subject-pronoun I in I think. We can lay out those ways just by considering the proposition and analyzing it in light of the four titles of the table of logical forms of judgment. The features attributed to myself as the referent of I in I think are described by Kant as logical or merely logical precisely because they are merely ways in which we think of ourselves, or form a concept of ourselves by virtue of the sole proposition I think which must be able to accompany all our representations. We

21 -21- form these thoughts or concepts just by virtue of the function fulfilled by relating our representations to one and the same I, and thus independently of any corresponding intuition or immediate and singular representation of ourselves as objects given in space and time, referred to by I. Let me now sketch out what this means when we consider I under each of the four titles of the table of logical functions of judgment. 1) In the proposition I think, I is necessarily subject, it cannot be predicate. Although Kant gives no reason for this affirmation, we may suppose at least two explanations: I is a singular term, which as such cannot be predicated of something else, but of which other things (properties or kinds) can be predicated. This general logical point is reinforced by the role of I think in the context of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories. For as we saw, it is by being attributed to one and the same I that the activity of thinking is unified and subject to norms of consistency. So I in I think so understood is necessarily subject, not predicate. But, Kant claims, because of the position I thus necessarily occupies in the thought I think, one tends to think of the logical subject ( I in thought) as a real subject, a metaphysical substrate or bearer of properties: a substance. Now Kant has no objection to describing the referent of I as a thing that thinks. Witness Kant s striking phrase expanding on the thought I, in the opening paragraphs of the Paralogisms, in both editions: the I or he or it (the thing) that thinks. 10 Surely, if there is thinking there is a thing that thinks. However, from Kant s standpoint, the problem with calling that thing a substance is that one then forgets that of that thing we know nothing at all, except that it has some activity present to us as our own thinking. But according to the account that was given of the category of substance in the

22 -22- Transcendental Analytic, this category is applicable only insofar as it serves to distinguish between permanent (substance) and changing (accidents) and thus to identify and re-identify objects of experience, and develop knowledge of them. None of this occurs with I. I, in I think, does not refer to a permanent object whose properties change. I is just the term to which we refer our thoughts in order to think of them as unified by one standpoint and bound by rules that commit us ( me ) to bring about unity and consistency under a unifying standpoint. Even if we grant that there can be no activity of thinking without a thing (or things) whose activity it is, the formal features of I in I think give us no indication at all about what kind of a thing (or things) might be active in this way. Characterizing it as a substance, however, puts us on the slippery slope of trying further to determine, in light of the logical features of I in I think, what the real features of that substance might be. 2) The first of these features is simplicity, characterized under the title of quality, the second title in the table of categories. In attributing thought to I, we take the act of thinking to be one and indivisible. Not that it does not have any components, but each of its component is inseparable from all the others and derives its meaning from its relation to all others, a relation expressed, again, by the fact that all thoughts are attributed to one I : I is not plural, it is a first person singular. Correspondingly, the referent of I is thought to have the property of indivisibility or simplicity. But this is a mere thought. It could well be that a thing given in intuition is indivisible in its action while being divisible by virtue of its extension in space. A fortiori, we can conclude nothing at all about the unknown subject of the activity of thinking from the simplicity of I in the thought I think.

23 -23-3) Under the title of quantity, the referent of I is thought to be numerically identical through time. In other words, in attributing think to I in I think, not only do we think of I as simple at any instant (as we saw in 2)), we also think of I as one and the same through time (numerically identical at any point in time). These two features, simplicity and numerical identity, are really two faces of one coin, consisting in the way we think of whatever is designated by I in the context of the unifying and logically binding thought I think. As we saw under the previous two titles of categories, we slip from the fact that I in I think is (logically) necessarily subject, not predicate, to the thought of the thing that thinks as being a substance, indeed asserting that it is a substance. And we slip from the fact that I in I think is (logically) one, not many (first person singular), to the thought that the thing that thinks is a simple substance. Similarly in the present case, we slip from the fact that I in I think is (logically) one and the same at any time at which we think, to the assertion that the simple (immaterial) thinking substance that is the bearer of these thoughts remains numerically identical, and indeed is conscious of its own numerical identity through time. Here Kant s denunciation of the illusion that plagues the rational psychologist is even more forceful than in the previous cases. He reminds us that according to the Transcendental Aesthetic and Analytic, time is transcendentally ideal: as a mode of ordering our intuitions, it is a feature of our own sensibility. And insofar as it is itself an intuition, it derives its unity from precisely the unifying standpoint, or transcendental unity of apperception, whose analytic (conceptual) expression is the proposition I think which must be able to accompany all my representations. This being so, of course what we refer to by I has to be one and the same through the whole time of our experience. And of course this

24 -24- identity is prior to and different from the identity of any object identifiable and reidentifiable in time, although it may readily be mistaken for such an identity: [ ] In the whole time in which I am conscious of myself, I am conscious of this time as belonging to the unity of my self, and it is all the same whether I say that this whole time is in me, as an individual unity, or that I am to be found with numerical identity in all of this time. (A362). And again: The identity of the consciousness of myself in different times is therefore only a formal condition of my thoughts and their connection, but it does not prove at all the numerical identity of my subject [here Kant means, of course, metaphysical or real subject: substrate or substance (B.L.)], in which despite the logical identity of the I a change can go on that does not allow it to keep its identity. (A363) 11 4) This takes us back to the issue of existence (which corresponds to the fourth title of the table of logical forms and categories, modality). As we saw in part one of this essay, Kant acknowledges that an existence is asserted, and justifiedly so, in the proposition I think. I think is an assertoric proposition, it asserts a predicate ( think ) of a subject ( I ). At least, this is what happens in any particular case in which any of us actually binds representations in such a way that I think actually accompanies them, whether explicitly or implicitly. However, a puzzling aspect of Kant s argument in the Paralogisms may be worth noting here. I think, Kant says, is the sole text of rational psychology. In other words, from the sole proposition I think and more particularly, from the role of I in I think, rational psychologists derives their whole

25 -25- doctrine of the soul as a thinking substance. But this means that I think is not treated as a singular proposition where a predicate, think is asserted of a singular term, I. Rather, the proposition I think is held to be true of all thinkers, and from the logical features of I in I think, real properties are derived that are themselves true of all thinkers. Moreover, even while denouncing the rationalist psychologist s move from the logical features of I to real features of a thinking substance, Kant himself does accept that I think is a form universally shared by all thinkers. For all thinkers I in I think is subject, not predicate. For all thinkers I in I think is one, not many. For all thinkers I is, at every instant in time, one and the same. No particular act of thinking needs actually to occur for these features to be universally thought to belong to any subject that thinks. Here, says Kant, I think, is taken problematically (see A , A353-54). Not so with the fourth title: on pains of falling into the error Kant (wrongly) accuses Descartes of having fallen into, that of deriving existence from thought taken as a concept, one must go back to the proposition I think as an assertion, where the content of the proposition is made true by the individual act of asserting it, and known to be true by the agent of the act referred to by I. This, I suggest, explains why on the one hand, Kant describes I think as a mere form of thought or a mere form of consciousness (here we have I think taken problematically, i.e. the I think that must be able to accompany all my representations ). But on the other hand, when (and only when) Kant considers I think under the fourth title of the logical forms and categories (modality), he describes it as an empirical proposition, which means as much as: I exist thinking (B428). However, he adds, the existence thus asserted of I is not the category of existence, or actuality. One

26 -26- way to explain this point might be the following: just as the numerical identity of the subject thought by I is not the identity of an identifiable and reidentifiable object, recognized under a concept and connected to other objects in space and time, similarly what is asserted to exist in the proposition I exist insofar as this proposition is contained in I think, is not an identifiable object connected to other objects in space and time. In other words, our access to its existence cannot be of the same kind as the access we have to the existence of identifiable and re-identifiable objects. This is why, as Kant insists, the concept of existence at work in thinking I think, i.e. I exist thinking is not the category of actuality at work when we say that an object of experience exists, i.e. is actual (actually exists) (see B423n. cited above p.00). To return to Descartes Sum res cogitans and Kant s I or he or it (the thing) that thinks : Kant agrees with Descartes that I refers to a thing that thinks, whose existence is contained in I think. He probably agrees that it is part of the essence of that thing, that it thinks. 12 But he disagrees that we have any warrant to assert that its only essential attribute is to think, or that it is a mind, distinct from the body, and whose existence is more certain than that of bodies. Indeed when we make this kind of statement we make a category mistake. For we compare the certainty of the precategorial existence contained in I think and the certainty of the actuality of objects given, identified and re-identified in space and time. What does make sense is to consider the respective certainty of the existence (actuality) of the thoughts ordered in time by I in I think and the existence (actuality) of bodies outside these thoughts, including the body empirically connected to my representations. Here Kant adamantly opposes what he calls Descartes problematic

27 -27- idealism. For he claims that the consciousness of objects outside us is a necessary condition of our consciousness of the very succession of representations in us. This is the point I now want to address. DESCARTES AND KANT ON THE CERTAINTY OF MY OWN EXISTENCE AND THE CERTAINTY OF THE EXISTENCE OF THINGS OUTSIDE ME The fourth Paralogism (the Paralogism of Ideality ) does not have the same structure as the previous three, at least in the first edition of the Critique. It is beyond the scope of the present paper to try to explain this striking difference. Instead I shall briefly summarize Kant s argument in the fourth Paralogism in the A edition and then analyze its relation to the Refutation of Idealism whose place, in the B edition of the Critique, has been shifted to the Transcendental Analytic (B274-79). I shall then relate these two versions of Kant s refutation of Descartes problematic idealism, to the aspects of Kant s relation to Descartes s Ego cogito, ergo sum I analyzed in the earlier parts of this paper. In the fourth Paralogism, in the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, the inference Kant refutes is roughly the following. (1) Only those things of which we are immediately conscious have indubitable existence. (2) Objects outside us are not objects we are immediately conscious of. Rather, their existence is inferred, as a cause, from the immediate consciousness we have of our own representations.

28 -28- (3) So the existence of objects outside us is dubitable. It is possible, but not certain, that objects outside us exist. Only our own existence as thinking beings, and that of our own representations, is indubitable. 13 In his comments on the fourth Paralogism, Kant attributes the conclusion (and the inference it implicitly rests on) to Descartes, and in the Refutation of Idealism added to the Transcendental Analytic in the second edition of the Critique, he describes as Descartes problematic idealism the view that the existence of objects outside us is merely probable, not certain. Now it s true that a causal reasoning of the kind described in the fourth Paralogism can be found in Descartes Meditations. The first instance of it is in the third Meditation, where Descartes claims that there must be at least as much formal reality in the objects that cause ideas in us, as there is objective reality in our ideas themselves. According to this principle, only God is an object whose idea cannot have been caused by our own formal reality, i.e. by the degree of reality contained in our own existence. So only of God can we say with certainty that he exists as the cause of the idea of God in us. In contrast, the existence of all other objects is doubtful, for none of the ideas of those objects has more objective reality than there is formal reality in us, so that the degree of reality they contain objectively can have its source in the degree of reality there is formally in us just as well as by the degree of reality contained formally in objects outside us. 14 A related causal reasoning is present again in the Sixth Meditation. At that point it has been established to Descartes satisfaction that God exists and is not deceiving. There is therefore every reason to believe that I am not deceived when I think, after

Michael Lacewing Descartes rationalism Descartes Meditations provide an extended study in establishing knowledge through rational intuition and deduction. We focus in this handout on three central claims:

Michael Lacewing Descartes arguments for distinguishing mind and body THE KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENT In Meditation II, having argued that he knows he thinks, Descartes then asks what kind of thing he is. Discussions

ON EXTERNAL OBJECTS By Immanuel Kant From Critique of Pure Reason (1781) General Observations on The Transcendental Aesthetic To avoid all misapprehension, it is necessary to explain, as clearly as possible,

Michael Lacewing Substance dualism A substance is traditionally understood as an entity, a thing, that does not depend on another entity in order to exist. Substance dualism holds that there are two fundamentally

Descartes Meditations Module 3 AQA Meditation I Things which can be called into Doubt Descartes rejects all his beliefs about the external world because they are doubtful and he wants to find a foundation

UNIT 1: RATIONALISM HANDOUT 5: DESCARTES MEDITATIONS, MEDITATION FIVE 1: CONCEPTS AND ESSENCES In the Second Meditation Descartes found that what we know most clearly and distinctly about material objects

1/9 Locke 1: Critique of Innate Ideas This week we are going to begin looking at a new area by turning our attention to the work of John Locke, who is probably the most famous English philosopher of all

Michael Lacewing The ontological argument St Anselm and Descartes both famously presented an ontological argument for the existence of God. (The word ontological comes from ontology, the study of (-ology)

Descartes Fourth Meditation On human error Descartes begins the fourth Meditation with a review of what he has learned so far. He began his search for certainty by questioning the veracity of his own senses.

The Slate Is Not Empty: Descartes and Locke on Innate Ideas René Descartes and John Locke, two of the principal philosophers who shaped modern philosophy, disagree on several topics; one of them concerns

Perspectives in Philosophy Rene Descartes Descartes Philosophy is the search for certainty the search to know, for yourself, what is really true and really false to know which beliefs are reliable. However,

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES Philosophical Perspectives, 26, Philosophy of Mind, 2012 FIRST PERSON ILLUSIONS: ARE THEY DESCARTES, OR KANT S? Christopher Peacocke Columbia University and University College,

The Philosophical Importance of Mathematical Logic Bertrand Russell IN SPEAKING OF "Mathematical logic", I use this word in a very broad sense. By it I understand the works of Cantor on transfinite numbers

Frege s theory of sense Jeff Speaks August 25, 2011 1. Three arguments that there must be more to meaning than reference... 1 1.1. Frege s puzzle about identity sentences 1.2. Understanding and knowledge

Notes on Descartes' Meditations Greetings to the Theology Faculty of Paris The purpose of this treatise is to raise metaphysical argumentation for God and the soul to a level of respectability sufficient

Some key arguments from Meditations III-V I. THIRD MEDITATION: The existence of God A. Cosmological proof of the Existence of God In the 3rd Meditation, Descartes attempts to prove that God (i) exists,

1. Descartes, Locke and Berkeley all believe that Introduction to Philosophy, Fall 2015 Test 2 Answers a. nothing exists except minds and the ideas in them. b. we can t ever be justified in believing in

Aquinas on Essence, Existence, and Divine Simplicity Strange but Consistent In the third question of the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas is concerned with divine simplicity. This is important for him both theologically

Reality in the Eyes of Descartes and Berkeley By: Nada Shokry 5/21/2013 AUC - Philosophy Shokry, 2 One person's craziness is another person's reality. Tim Burton This quote best describes what one finds

Michael Lacewing Descartes Meditations The AQA syllabus identifies Descartes Meditations as a key text for the A Level in Philosophy as a whole. In this handout, I provide a commentary on the text, guided

Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy Meditation 1: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called Into Doubt (27-30.1) Descartes wants to establish a firm foundation for his beliefs, having noted that

Glossary of Key Terms Ad hominem: An argument directed at an opponent in a disagreement, not at the topic under discussion. Agent: One who acts and is held responsible for those actions. Analytic judgment:

Perspectives on Computer Intelligence Can computers think? In attempt to make sense of this question Alan Turing, John Searle and Daniel Dennett put fourth varying arguments in the discussion surrounding

Descartes s Meditations on First Philosophy G. J. Mattey Winter, 2006 / Philosophy 1 The Dawn of Modern Philosophy Modern philosophy appeared in the first half of the seventeenth century. Several philosophers

In Defense of Kantian Moral Theory University of California, Berkeley In this paper, I will argue that Kant provides us with a plausible account of morality. To show that, I will first offer a major criticism

RSR Episode #11 Ontological Argument The Ontological Argument for God s existence was developed in the Middle Ages by St. Anselm. It claims that reflection on God s nature as the greatest conceivable being

Introduction Descartes Proof of the External World In order to fully overcome the doubts of Meditation I Descartes had to show, in Meditation VI, that he could be certain of the existence of the material

DIVINE CONTINGENCY Einar Duenger Bohn IFIKK, University of Oslo Brian Leftow s God and Necessity is interesting, full of details, bold and ambitious. Roughly, the main question at hand is: assuming there

DESCARTES SCIENCE MINDS, BODIES, AND GEOMETRY Perhaps the most important feature of Descartes ontology is his belief that there are only two kinds of things in the universe: corporeal bodies and minds:

Kant on Time Diana Mertz Hsieh (diana@dianahsieh.com) Kant (Phil 5010, Hanna) 28 September 2004 In the Transcendental Aesthetic of his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant offers a series of dense arguments

1 Summary of Meditations III-V I. THIRD MEDITATION: The existence of God A. Cosmological proof of the Existence of God In the 3rd Meditation, Descartes attempts to prove that God (i) exists, (ii) is the

God and Reality Arman Hovhannisyan Metaphysics has done everything to involve God in the world of being. However, in case of considering Reality as being and nothingness, naturally, the metaphysical approach

University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 40 items for: keywords : existence of God Arguing the Existence of God: From the World to Its Maker Francis X. Clooney in Hindu God, Christian

Skepticism about the external world & the problem of other minds So far in this course we have, broadly speaking, discussed two different sorts of issues: issues connected with the nature of persons (a

Descartes Meditations II & III Phil 100, Intro to Philosophy Benjamin Visscher Hole IV SUMMARY OF MEDITATION ONE 1. Knowledge is either a priori or it is a posteriori. 2. If it is a posteriori, we do not

Quine on truth by convention March 8, 2005 1 Linguistic explanations of necessity and the a priori.............. 1 2 Relative and absolute truth by definition.................... 2 3 Is logic true by convention?...........................

Sorensen on Unknowable Obligations Theodore Sider Utilitas 7 (1995): 273 9 1. Access principles Vagueness in the phrase can know aside, the principle of Access An act is obligatory only if its agent can

Anselm s Ontological Argument for the Existence of God Anselm s argument is an a priori argument; that is, it is an argument that is independent of experience and based solely on concepts and logical relations,

Existence Is Not a Predicate by Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant, Thoemmes About the author.... Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) studied in Königsberg, East Prussia. Before he fully developed an interest in philosophy,

Hume on identity over time and persons phil 20208 Jeff Speaks October 3, 2006 1 Why we have no idea of the self........................... 1 2 Change and identity................................. 2 3 Hume

Descartes s Argument for the Existence of the Idea of an Infinite Being The Meditations on First Philosophy presents us with an alleged proof for the existence of God that proceeds from the existence of

Michael Lacewing Kant s deontological ethics DEONTOLOGY Deontologists believe that morality is a matter of duty. We have moral duties to do things which it is right to do and moral duties not to do things

Writing Political Theory Papers Political theory is a little bit different than political science. Here are some important differences. 1) It s more like philosophy than social science: it is more concerned

Proving God Exists Ashley Kerner Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor Arts in the Integral Curriculum of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary s College April 16, 2012 Advisor: Preface During

The Kantian Paradox Raivydas Simenas Creighton University a) Introduction The success of Western cultural, political and especially economical development during the last two centuries not surprisingly

Doubt, Knowledge and the Cogito in Descartes Meditations JOHN WATLING Descartes published his Meditations in First Philosophy in 1641. A French translation from the original Latin, which he saw and approved

A VALID ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT? I WISH to discuss Professor Malcolm's absorbingly powerful defense of a version of Anselm's ontological proof for the existence of God.' Professor Malcolm believes "that in

Omnipotence & prayer Today, we ll be discussing two theological paradoxes: paradoxes arising from the idea of an omnipotent being, and paradoxes arising from the religious practice of prayer. So far, in

Writing Thesis Defense Papers The point of these papers is for you to explain and defend a thesis of your own critically analyzing the reasoning offered in support of a claim made by one of the philosophers

CHAPTER 5 PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD I Introductory Remark We have seen that according to Sri Svaminarayana,out oi the three methods of knowing reality it is only intuition that helps us in knowing

How does the problem of relativity relate to Thomas Kuhn s concept of paradigm? Eli Bjørhusdal After having published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962, Kuhn was much criticised for the use

SENSUS COMMUNIS AND THE PUBLIC Jacob Lund Drawing upon the analyses of French philosopher and art theorist Yves Michaud and the Belgian art theorist Thierry de Duve, this article is an investigation of

Hegel s Trinitarian Claim G. W. F. Hegel is one of the greatest thinkers of the Greek-Western trinitarian tradition. He said that the theologians of his day had effective ly abandoned the doctrine of the

1/9 Locke and Hume on Personal Identity Locke and Hume both discuss the idea of personal identity in connection with certain general claims about the very idea of identity in a more general sense and I

PHILOSOPHY 4830 - SENIOR SEMINAR THE PHILOSOPHY OF PERCEPTION ESSAY TOPICS AND INSTRUCTIONS INSTRUCTIONS 1. As is indicated in the syllabus, the written work for the course will take the form of two essays,

4. THE SUBSTANCE OF FAITH Among Christians around the world today there is much talk about faith. Many preachers consistently expound on this one topic. Others have written entire books on the subject.